SPACE TURTLES
by teawithmilk
Summary: A week after another man bought a similar Firefly-class ship and set off on a journey to change the known, settled universe, Donatello came back from the junkyard with a set of papers in his hands, Mikey came back with a fugitive, and Leo would blame Raph if the Alliance tracked them down.


a tmnt 2012 au set in the firefly universe because why not. I have no idea what this could even be named yet hence the lame title. Turtles = Nickelodeon.

* * *

**—****SPACE TURTLES—**

A week after another man bought a similar Firefly-class ship and set off on a journey to change the known, settled universe, Donatello came back from the junkyard with a set of papers in his hands, and laid them out on the kitchen table.

Raph was first to speak up: "Dude, I thought you were after a _Javelin_-class."

"That was before the guy knew I was a _turtle _and jacked the price by twenty percent. It's still got enough space for all of us," he replied, picking his thumb worriedly. "plus room to spare so we can take on passengers-"

"—if anyone'll ride with _us_-"

"_If _anyone will ride with us, yes, Raph." Donnie sighed, scanning the papers again with a slightly-less triumphant, slightly-more mournful look as Leo tugged them closer to read for himself. "But until then, we never had problems taking on cargo for the last ship, so I'm sure that the _Apex_ will be basically the same just with, you know, more cargo! And passengers - she's an 8-berth ship, so that's room for all of us, plus sensei, plus up to three passengers - more, if we decide to share rooms and—"

"Can't we call her the Dauntless?"

"—what?"

Leo looked up from where he'd been poring over the paperwork, his blue eyes wide in that way that wasn't quite pleading, but he knew exactly how that particular face would work on his brothers. "The ship. Can we change the name?"

"Um," said Donnie, and Leo spoke over him.

"To the _Dauntless_."

"Well we kind of spent all our money on _buying_ the ship so I don't really-"

"If you try and name our new ship after your stupid show I will leave you on this stupid planet," Raph put in bluntly, and Donatello looked awkwardly between the two before snapping a gangly arm forward to rescue the papers a moment before the glaring started.

And then Mikey cleared his throat. "Uh, I think you are all forgetting that I am the one who does the naming of stuff."

* * *

So the Dauntless/Apex/_Shellraiser_ (just what, Mikey) took on her first cargo - nothing fancy, just a few tons of fresh fruit, with a firm deadline, and some slightly below-the-line stuff stacked beneath the crates of peaches, with an even firmer deadline. Leo looked at the boxes nervously. "Raph…" he warned, folding his arms. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No," his brother replied, folding his arms. "but we don't have a choice right now. You put me in charge down here, remember?"

"I put you in charge," Leo pointed out, "of the cargo bay, because you _asked_. Is— _are they weapons_!?"

"No! Maybe. …parts of weapons is okay, right?"

"Raph!"

"Hey, Donnie's in charge of the manifest!"

"Donnie's in charge of the _engine room_ - Mikey's in charge of the manifest, I— where_is_ he, anyway?"

"He went out to try to find some passengers so we can afford to actually fly this thing."

Leo frowned. "You sent Mikey to— did you forget the last time you let him do that!? We barely escaped a criminal record!"

"Yeah, because we let Mikey cute-talk the Alliance to get us out of it." Raph shrugged, unrepentent. "Look, Mikey's not going to bring us any trouble, 'cause he knows that if he _does_, I'll pound him through the hull."

"That still doesn't change the fact you _brought weapons onto my ship_!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, _your _ship? I think you'll find it's _our_ ship! And—"

"—and we all agreed that this time we weren't going to do anything stupid!"

"This _isn't _stupid - and besides," he huffed, "it's too late, I already signed the papers and agreed to the deadline."

"Then _un-sign_ them—!"

The buzzer at the cargo bay door sounded, a low rough claxon that Leo instantly promised himself that Donnie would replace, right after… well. Everything else. Leo swallowed. "Tell me that's just a coincidence," he demanded tightly, as it buzzed again in three demanding bursts.

"It's a coincidence," Raph said, but didn't look convinced himself. "It's gotta be."

"Or, you fell for some kind of Alliance _sting_ and just got us all in jail!"

"I didn't! Look, Casey's a good guy, I'm telling you!"

"Oh, _Casey's a good guy_," Leo mimicked. "So good that he's sending _weapon parts_ to Persephone!"

From up the stairs, Donnie pelted down into the bay; "What are you _doing_?" he grumbled, "I can hear that noise all the way in the engine room. Just let Mikey in already."

Leo winced, turning away from Raph and to his other younger brother, face pulled into an awkward, pained expression. "Um. Donnie. Maybe you should check the security camera."

"Who else is gonna come to _our ship_?" Donnie sniped, giving up and rubbing his hand against his purple shirt before reaching for the controls. "I can't believe you two are too busy arguing to let _our brother _in!"

"Donnie, wait!" Leo yelped, and Donnie froze, hand hovering over the door controls.

"What? It's _Mikey_."

Raph shifted. "Or it could— …it might be the Alliance."

"What. WHAT!?"

* * *

At Donnie's side, Leo let out a huge, gusty sigh of relief when the grimy security camera finally decided to work. "It's Mikey," he announced, and Raph nonchalantly lowered his rifle. "…and he's got someone with him."

The rifle came back up. Together, the three of them headed towards the cargo bay shutter, each armed - Raph with his rifle, Leo a sword and Donnie grabbed the nearest thing to him, a heavy socket wrench. Outside, Mikey hit the buzzer again and the three of them flinched. "On three," Donnie said quietly, sliding into position near the button, and Leo nodded.

"One… two…"

On three, Donnie slammed his hand against the big red button, and the heavy metal door clattered open, revealing Mikey's bare feet against the dust outside. "Jeez, what took you guys so long? I was starting to worry! Re_lax_," Mikey added as the door clonked to a stop, and waved at the brandished weapons. "You're gonna scare away my new friend here!"

A shock of red hair was barely visible behind Mikey's shell, but nothing else aside from the military-surplus duffle bag hanging from a shoulder. Mikey grinned, completely oblivious to the fact he'd almost given his three brothers a heart-attack. "Broskis, I have brought you… a passenger." He gestured to the slim person standing just behind him with jazz hands. Then he leaned in towards Raph, covering his mouth in a staged side-whisper. "She's kind of keeping a _loooow profile_. So I said she can come with us!"

The girl leaned out from behind Mikey and grinned brightly. "Hi!"

Donatello dropped his wrench. Onto his foot. He held very still and only whimpered once: "Hi…!"

"Hi!" she said again. "I'm April. Mikey said you guys had a spare bunk?"

* * *

—tbc. maybe.—


End file.
